Tone quality

[TinyTubist97]

I think I have good tone quality from what people tell me but I can't really hear it myself. I try to record it and it sounds bad but that might be the camera not being good for low frequencies. Is there a better way for me to hear myself?

[tubajazzo]

-why not simply use a better recording device?
I found recording and hearing my sound very helpful. Use a Zoom H2 or any of the numerous brands.

[jamsav]

-why not simply use a better recording device?
I found recording and hearing my sound very helpful. Use a Zoom H2 or any of the numerous brands.

+1 , and play in a room large enough for your sound to " blossom " ....Have the mic 15- 20 feet away -

[ghmerrill]

IF you record yourself and it sounds bad, AND you record something else and it sounds good, THEN your sound is bad (assuming no real problems in recording different frequency ranges).

IF everything you record sounds bad, THEN you have crappy recording equipment (or perhaps crappy playback equipment) and you can't tell how anything you record really sounds.

First, establish that when you record something that sounds good to you, the recording also sounds good to you and sounds like what you are hearing as it is being recorded. Once you're confident that your recording/playback equipment is providing reliable recording and playback of things you KNOW sound good and things you KNOW don't sound good, then record yourself on the tuba. If it sounds good, then you're good. If it sounds bad, then you're bad.

Elementary empirical experimentation.

I record myself on my PC using Free Sound Recorder and my AT 2020 USB mic and play it back through a cheapy Chinese amp and decent speakers. The result is actually very accurate. I don't know what "camera" you're using, but if you want a reliable recording and playback of how you actually sound, you might want to consider something else. (A number of people in the community band I play in use their iPhones for this sort of thing. Waste of time.)

[TinyTubist97]

I just hooked up some nice speakers and there is a great improvement. I also checked how low my camera speaker could play and below 100hz was barely audible.

[ghmerrill]

Good speakers make a huge difference, although I find that for really hearing what I sound like, headphones are best. But you need to take care to have ones that handle the correct frequency range -- especially for tuba.

There is some additional useful information about recording (euphoniums) here: http://www.dwerden.com/talk/forum/categ ... entercat=y, though often the equipment referred to is fairly pricey. But there is an interesting discussion on mic placement as well.